America250-Revolutionary War Patriots --#4--Capt. Samuel Elliott

 Captain Samuel Elliott  is Jim’s 6th great-grandfather. Research has definitively identified that Samuel was born around 1751 in Ballymena, Antrim County, Ulster, Ireland (Northern Ireland) and parents are not known. According to the Licking County Pioneer Society (1872), he immigrated to America in 1771 and lived in Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia.

Revolutionary War Service

Samuel Elliott had a long history of service in the Revolutionary War. He first enlisted in Captain John Boyd’s Company of Militia in Col. Thomas Portor’s Battalion, Lancaster Co, PA in 1776. In 1777, he was a lieutenant. (DAR Application Member #750249) Samuel Elliott enlisted in Captain Edward Paschall’s company, of the First Philadelphia Militia, Regiment of Foot, commanded by Colonel William Bradford. (Pennsylvania Archives 6th Series, Volume 1, edited by Thomas Lynch Montgomery,1906  pp. 68). He enlisted as one of 4 sergeants on August 26, 1779. They mustered at Fort Mifflin, October 18, 1779, the same Fort as my ancestor Capt. Nathan Stoddard was killed two years prior. He is also found serving as a Captain in the Second Company of the Fifth Battalion of Lancaster County Militia 27th April 1782.

Ohio Life

After the war, he, his wife and family relocated to “Maryland in 1788 located upon lands lying west of Fort Cumberland. 

In 1800 he opened a trading tent with the Indians at Bowling Green, Licking County and planted a crop [of corn and potatoes] and returned to Maryland for his family. Upon returning to Licking County, he harvested the crop and purchased land of General Schenk upon which he resided until the time of his death on May 24, 1831.” (DAR Application #133417).

He was one of the pioneers to Licking County, Ohio and a robust biography appears in the Our Pioneers: being biographical sketches of Capt. Elias Hughes, John Ratliff, Benjamin Green, Richard Pitzer, John Van Buskirk, Isaac and John Stadden, and Capt. Samuel Elliott ; with brief notices of the pioneers of 1801 and 1802 / by Isaac Smucker. pamphlet and is copied here:

 

Jim descends from Samuel and Mary Campbell’s 2nd son Samuel Elliott Jr., who was a twin with Alexander Elliott, born on 13 May 1788. 

• Samuel Elliott Jr. marries Margaret Parr and they have a son Richard Elliott. 

• Richard and his wife Rebecca Speaker have a daughter named Mary Elliot. 

• Mary marries Thomas Cochlin and they have a daughter Sophia Cochlin. 

• 

  Peter Monroe & Mary Lucinda Baucher

  Sophia marries George W. Howell (a different Howell family than previously mentioned in Jim’s ancestry). 

• They have a daughter Mary Lucinda Howell who marries a Peter Monroe Baucher. 
  

• Mary and Peter have a son James E. Bowker who marries Virginia Conklin, my husband’s grandparents. 

Only the last two generations made their way to Michigan, previously they were all in Ohio, Licking County and then Auglaize and Mercer Counties.

References:

Captain Samuel Elliott: Licking County Pioneer, (1983) by Mariam Parr.

Pennsylvania Archives, 5th Series, Vol. VII, pages 468, 470-472, 974, 1062.

History of Licking County (Ohio) (1881) Compiled by N. W. Hill Jr., p. 218.

“Our Pioneers”, (1872) Isaac Smucker of Licking County. 

An Unplanned Excursion Worth Taking!

 Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a planner. I'm detailed and goal oriented. I make a plan and I follow it! I have learned to deal with ambiguity, but I prefer a plan.

Today, I knew the route I was taking to get from Riverside, PA to Ft. Wayne, IN. I could have taken a route I know well, it was 3 minutes faster but it was along I-80 and had tolls. But I chose to take the alternate route and that was my plan. It was a direct shot to Ft. Wayne and I didn't plan any site seeing along the way.

The Excursion

Me in front of one set of Jim's
Great-Great Grandparents Graves

As I was half-way through Ohio, and not on the part of Ohio we normally travel to Michigan, I realized that Molly and I might just be passing close by a cemetery where my husband's family was laid to rest. Since I was driving and couldn't do this on my own, I quickly called Jim, who happened to be talking with one of our daughters and I asked them if they could help navigate me to the Liberty Chapel Cemetery in Liberty, Mercer Co, Ohio. (I really marvel at technology and what we can actually do on the fly, I do love the time we are living in!)  They did and I altered my route and drove about an extra hour today that I hadn't planned, but I had the time and it was worth it!

Background

Peter Monroe Baucher &
Mary Lucinda Howell

Jim's maternal great-grandparents, Peter Monroe Baucher and Mary Lucinda Howell were both born in Ohio. Mary was actually born in Liberty, where the cemetery is located. They both came from farming families. Peter's grandfather's family originally came from Pennsylvania (Bachar) slowly moving westward into Ohio. Peter was the 11th child of 12 and his father died when he was 10. He grew up farming, which is what he knew but by the time he was married (1892), there wasn't much farm land to be had. He worked as a blacksmith (according to 1900 census) and then sometime before 1910 found farmland to buy in Crystal, Montcalm, Michigan and was a farmer until he died in 1930. Mary Lucinda was from a Howell farming family that had been in Ohio for many generations.

Find-A-Grave

I love Find-A-Grave and have taken and uploaded hundreds of photos to it about my family and also from our local cemeteries. In fact, early during COVID, one of my daughters and I spent weekends in cemeteries around our local area finding and photographing gravesites that people had requested. In those early months when people were afraid to get out of their houses, it was a great way for us to get out of the house but go where no living people would be and do something for others. I love these crowdsourcing websites where people can help other people find their relatives. I highly encourage everyone to do this, even if they aren't into genealogy. (And there are other sites like Billion Graves).

The Headstones

Both sets of their (Peter Monroe & Mary Lucinda) parents are buried in this cemetery. I knew that and I actually already had photos of their headstones, thanks to Find-A-Grave, but there is something about actually being physically in that space. Driving out there and seeing the Ohio farmland all around. The town of Liberty has less than 1,000 people and quite honestly from what I saw, I have no idea where they all live! At some point, I imagine there was a church (or at least chapel) next to the cemetery but there's no sign of it now and it seemed like about 1/3 to 1/2 of the people buried in the cemetery were related to these two. While I didn't actually learn anything new, it was interesting to see that someone is still caring enough for the graves to put out a wreath. I'm sure there are relatives of Jim's still in the area. I don't have any photographs of these four great-great grandparents, YET, so maybe one day I will connect with a descendant of one of Peter's 11 siblings or one of Mary's 10 siblings who may have a photo of their parents?!